Consider that, today, more than 70% of Americans use social media—up from only 5% tallied in 2005, according to the Pew Research Center. A handful of key players in the space continue to rule. Social Media Examiner's "2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report" revealed that the top platforms used by marketers are Facebook (94%), Twitter (68%), LinkedIn (56%), Instagram (54%), YouTube (45%), Pinterest (30%), and Snapchat (7%). So what's in stor for 2018?

Marydee Ojala

Marydee Ojala edits ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals and writes its business research column ("The Dollar Sign"). Since 1987, Ojala has owned and operated her own research and writing company with offices in the U.S. and Denmark, specializing in international business, industry analysis, management processes, and competitive intelligence projects. She contributes feature articles and news stories to Information Today, Searcher, and Information Today's NewsBreaks.

So who put the “e” in econtent? I’d like to meet this guy. When collections are digitized, why don’t we call it “econtent”? Instead, we talk about creating a “digital library.” The information industry has been busy making content digital for 30 years or so. Yet somehow the idea of turning print indexes into online databases or digitizing entire runs of scholarly journals so that they are full-text searchable just doesn’t capture the public’s attention. It’s only when we call it “econtent” that everyone gets all interested and excited.

The open access (OA) landscape is littered with misconceptions and misunderstandings. In fact, the very definition of open access is frequently disputed. There are those who assume that anything free is open access and others who confuse it with kindred spirit open source, but understanding the definition is only to begin to grasp the issues OA raises. Marydee ojala

This year, SLA heads to Toronto for its annual conference—and several Information Today, Inc. editors and writers will be there, ready to enjoy the city and blog the conference for the second year in a row.

Until recently, the publishing models in science, technology, and medicine—the STM market—have been twofold. You published your research results either in a journal sponsored by a professional association or in one produced by a for-profit company. Enter the Public Library of Science (PLoS).

The WhizBang! name choice may have verged on the accidental, but the product itself was no accident. The extraction technology that company founder Bob Sherwin considers so whizbang wonderful consists of a unique approach to scouring the Web for current, very specific forms of information.